Conductor clamp



Aug! 7, 1934. w. A. HILLEBRAND CONDUCTOR CLAMP Filed Aug. 12, 1932 Will/am Al/filebrand BY Fl' J INVENTOR Patented Aug. 7, 1934 UNITED STATES CONDUCTOR CLAMP William A. Hillebrand, Barberton, Ohio, assignor to The Ohio Brass Company, Mansfield, Ohio, a corporation of New Jersey 1 Application August 12, 1982, Serial No. 628,461

7 Claims. (01. 248- 31) This invention relates to clamps for supporting electrical conductors from suspension insulators or other suitable suspension devices, and has for one of its objects the provision of 5 a conductor clamp which maybe readily adapted" to conductors of varying sizes and cross sec-' tional shapes.

A further object of the invention is to provide a conductor clamp which will damp out vibrations in the conductor.

A further object of the invention is to provide a conductor clamp which shall be of improved construction and operation.

Other objects and advantages will appear from the following description.

The invention is exemplified by the combination and arrangement of parts shown inthe accompanying drawing and described in the following specification, and it is more particularly pointed out in the appended claims.

In the drawing:

Fig. 1 is a vertical sectional view with parts in elevation showing a conductor clamp having one form of the invention applied thereto.

Fig. 2 is an end view of the clamp shown in Fig. 1.

Fig. 3 is a section on line 33 of Fig. 1.

Fig. 4 is a section on line 4--4 of Fig. 1.

Fig. 5 is a fragmentary end view of a modi- 30 fied form of the invention.

The numeral designates an electrical conductor which may be of any preferred cross sectional shape. The form of conductor shown in the drawing is one that is illustrated in the application of Arthur 0. Austin, Serial Number 623,525, filed July 20, 1932. The conductor 10 is supported by a clamp having a lower jaw or supporting saddle 11 and an upper clamping bar 12. Between the saddle 11 and the conduc- 40 tor 10 is a clamping seat 13 fitting in the saddle 11 and having a convex portion 14 shaped to fit into a cavity 15 in the saddle 11 so as to hold the seat 13 in place. The conductor 10 is clamped between the bar 12 and seat 13by U- bolts 16, provided with nuts 17, as more clearly shown in Fig. 3.

It has been found that conductors of certain forms and cross sectional shapes have less tend-.

ency to vibrate than conductors of other shapes, and some of the conductors having less tendency to vibrate in the wind have irregular outer surfaces. Such conductors cannot be readily held by conductor clamps as heretofore constructed for the reason that the clamping faces have a tendency to crush the projections on the surface of the conductor, and for the further reason that the specially formed conductors usually have a larger over-all dimension than conductors of conventional shapes.

In the present invention the seat 13 and the clamp 12 are readily removableand the clamping faces of these members are given any desired shape to fit the outer contour of the particular conductor to be held. It will be readily apparent to those skilled in the art that the bearing faces of the members 12 and 13 can be made complementary to the surface contour of the conductor to be held so that the conductor fits readily between the clamping plates. If it is desired to use a clamp for a conductor of a different contour, it is only necessary to replace the members 12 and 13 with other clamping jaws having the proper contour on their clamping faces. By this means it is a simple matter to adapt a particular clamp or set of clamps to a conductorof any desired shape or size.

The clamp is also provided with an inertia block or weight 1.8, suspended from the pin 19 which supports the conductor clamp and which passes through ears 20 extending upwardly from the saddle 11. The extremities of the saddle 11 are provided with friction plates 21 which may be held to the saddle by screws 22. The side plates 23 of the inertia block 18 are provided with recesses 24 in which are set friction plates 25 in position to bear against the surfaces of the plates 21 on the saddle member 11. A leaf spring 26 bears upon the friction plate 25 and is placed under stress by means of a screw 27 and a bearing plate 28. By this arrangement, the friction plates 21 and 25 are resiliently held in contact with each other and whenever any vertical vibration is imparted to the clamp member 11, the two plates 21 and 25 frictionally rub each other, tending to damp out this vibration. The inertia of the block 18 will prevent movement of the plate 25 while the plate 21 will move up and down with the conductor. In transmission line conductors, the vertical vibration is the only vibration that produces serious trouble so that it is unnecessary to provide for damping out transverse vibration.

In the modification shown in Fig. 5, a friction block 29 is provided having an inclined wedging surface 30 which cooperates with the wedge 31 to force the block 29 against the friction plate 21. A spring 32 presses the Wedge 31 downwardly and the tension of the spring may be adjusted by a'screw 33.

I claim:

1. A conductor clamp comprising a saddle member having an elongated groove therein, means for supporting said saddle member, a conductor seat disposed in said saddle member and having helically disposed grooves in its upper face shaped to conform to helical strands projecting from the surface of a particular conductor to be carried thereby, a clamping bar for engaging the upper face of the conductor and having its lower face provided with helically disposed grooves shaped to conform to the projecting strands of the same conductor as said seat, and means rigidly and removably holding said saddle member, conductor seat, conductor and clamping bar together to clamp said conductor in place, said holding means being arranged to permit removal of said seat and clamping bar and the replacement thereof by seats and bars having conductor engaging faces of different contours to accommodate conductors of diiierent sizes and shapes.

2. A conductor clamp comprising a conductor supporting member, means for suspending said member from an insulator, friction means for damping out vibrations of said supporting member to damp out vibrations of a conductor carried thereby and means not subject to vibrations from said conductor for supporting said friction means.

3. A conductor clamp having an elongated seat member for supporting a conductor, means for applying friction to said member adjacent one end thereof for damping out vibrations of said conductor and means for restraining said friction means from vibration in unison with said conductor.

4. In combination a pivotally supported clamp for supporting an electrical conductor, said clamp having arms extending transverse to the axis of its pivotal support, means for applying friction to the ends of said arms for damping out vibrations in the conductor carried by said clamp and means for restraining said friction means from vibration in unison with said conductor.

5. In combination a conductor clamp, means for holding the conductor in said clamp, a pair of frictionally engaging members for damping out vibrations of said conductor, one of said members being secured to said clamp, and a Weight forming an inertia member for preventing movement of the other friction members.

6. The combination with a conductor, of a clamp for supporting said conductor, a Weighted member supported adjacent said clamp, and frictionally engaging members carried by said clamp and said weighted member respectively for damping out vibrations imparted to said clamp by said conductor.

'7. The combination with a conductor having an irregular surface contour to minimize vibrations of said conductor caused by air currents, the clamp for supporting said conductor having removable contact members provided with seats shaped to fit the contour of said conductor, friction means engaging said clamp for damping out vibrations imparted to said clamp by said conductor and means not subject to vibrations from said conductor for supporting said friction means.

WILLIAM A. I-IILLEBRAND. 

